Oops. There's a body, or the jewels are gone, or someone ate the last piece of pie. Time to start looking for clues. That piece of pie was ''mine!''

This is the section of a [[CrimeAndPunishmentSeries crime and punishment show]] where the cast chases down clues. The ''Series/{{CSI}}'' shows spend a good bit of time in this phase, usually with at least two lab montages. In fact, the section has become so [[MundaneMadeAwesome stylized]] and perfunctory that some shows have resorted to doing the whole thing in montage.

Sometimes, after some PerpSweating or a EurekaMoment, the detective will be given an ''additional'' montage where he gathers the last shreds of evidence he needs, asking questions and making arrangements which will be completely meaningless and confusing to the viewer until TheSummation makes everything clear.----!!Examples:

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* [[Anime/TheIdolmaster THE iDOLM@STER]] anime plays with this, when the Futami twins are trying to discover who stole Iori's pudding from the fridge. Complete with summation in the end.** Another one from the same episode, earlier they are shooting a [[ShowWithinAShow drama]] episode where this happens to the three sisters that are the played by the three girls from the Ryuugu Komachi.

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[[folder: Fan Works ]]

* There's a brief scene in ''[[FanFic/TheVinylAndOctaviaSeries Vinyl and Octavia in 'Dial D for Detectives']]'' where Vinyl and Octavia look around the scene of Switch Blade's murder for clues.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* ''Film/DejaVu'': After the bomb, in Claire's house and at the suspect's house.* ''Film/{{Evidence}}'': A sort of variation on the trope; the movie revolves around investigators searching for clues in video footage recovered from the scene of a mass murder.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* In "[[ArabianNights The Three Apples]]", the caliph Harun al-Rashid, orders the TheGoodChancellor, GrandVizierJafar ibn Yahya, who gets a HistoricalHeroUpgrade in this tale, to play the role of a {{Detective}} and sends him on a scavenger hunt to solve the murder mystery and bring the [[CrimeAndPunishmentSeries culprit to justice]].* ''Literature/TheDaughterOfTime'': Carradine does all the legwork, seeing as how Grant has broken his.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/TheForgotten'': A prominent portion of the show revolves around the volunteers of the Forgotten Network assembling clues as to who the victim is, usually punctuated by beyond the grave narration from the John or Jane Doe.

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[[folder: Roleplay ]]

* ''ArchipelagoExodus'': The first two acts, or at least until Renard tails Channery's car.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'': As part of the profiling game mechanic.* ''SigmaHarmonics'': After going back to a certain time and a certain place, Sigma can use his sound-related powers to uncover 'moments of sound' - clues as to what happened in that place during that time.* Almost every case in the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series of games has you scrambling for evidence just after the crime was committed, alternating with days in court.** In-universe, this is justified by the rather taxing court system, which demands that every single claim the defense lays out MUST be backed up by evidence. So of course, Phoenix needs to cart around every potential piece of evidence he can find before the trial, or else his accusations get quickly shot down by the judge/prosecution/witness, on the grounds that there's no evidence to back it up.* The second phase of each chapter in ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'', which takes place whenever someone gets murdered, consists of gathering evidence for the upcoming school trial.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Every ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' episode involves the gang looking for clues in the mystery they are currently solving.